How much do you feed your Perch on a daily basis and how often? Also what do you feed?

We're going to get our horse today and he was a rescue and was very underweight but they got 400lbs on him and he needs about 200-250 more. They feed him 1 scoop of strategy, 1 scoop of sweetfeed and 1 scoop of weight gainer all once a day. This does not seem right to me if we're trying to put weight on him. I know the horse I was leasing was fed twice a day. So I just wanted to know what you guys thought on this. I want him to be very healthy! Also is what they're giving him good? or is there something better? I know if you have to switch out their food to do it gradually so they dont colic, do you think I need to switch it out?

hotreddun

01-01-2009 04:56 PM

I don't know the specifics of Percherons...but all horses should have access to free choice forage in my opinion. Good quality grass hay all day all the time. At minimum the horse should get 10-15% of body weight I believe of grass hay a day.

I am not a fan of Purina Strategy. And I don't think any horse needs sweet feed...its junk food IMO.

Also...feeding once a day is bad for the horse's gut...especially if they don't have free-choice hay. Feed at least twice a day IMO.

hotreddun

01-01-2009 05:02 PM

I forgot to post what I feed my Quarter Horse weighs 1200lb:

I feed about 5 lb hay in the morning 5 in the evening and another 5 split into two snacks (lunch and late night).

Grain twice a day: 3 lb. of Triple Crown Low Starch, 1 cup of Omega Horseshine, 1 scoop Opti-Zyme (probiotics), 1 tsp of Cocosoya oil, and I usually throw in a popsicle (I make ice cubes of diluted orange juice or chamomile tea, etc.) just to add variety. I generally always give him a carrot to do carrot stretches once a day as well.

WildHeartsCantBeBroken

01-04-2009 12:25 AM

yeah we started feeding him twice a day since we got him. All the horses I have been around and leased were all fed 2 times a day so once a day didn't sound good to me. we turn him out into a pasture in the morning for all day and then bring him in at night to a stall and we keep hay in there so he is able to graze all day and he has hay in his pasture as well.

I'm still learning all the food and what brands are good and everything.

toosexy4myspotz

01-04-2009 12:57 AM

I dont know much about Percherons but a dear friend to me has 18 of them that he trains and used for pulling plows and working on a farm as well as draft pulls. He feeds three times a day and each horse gets roughly 4.5-6 pounds at each feeding. He feeds a buckeye sweet feed. These horses are beautiful ande perfectly filled out however they also do loads of work 6 days a week.

MrsB

01-04-2009 03:47 AM

Most feeding rules apply to all horses, not just specific breeds. :-)

Horses are grazers. They can actually be eating, or foraging, for up to 20 hours a day. They need to in order to keep their guts functioning properly.

Horses bodies produce toxins used to help with digestion. Without food, these toxins are not digested and remain in the body and can cause serious problems, including liver faliure.

Pasture and good quality hay is all a horse really needs (unless supplementing for weight gain, energy etc etc of course!). They will eat as much hay as they need and this is easy to assess. If they dont leave any scraps behind after eating, then feed a little more the next time. Keep increasing until they're leaving little scraps behind. This is the horses way of saying thats all they need for that day.

If your horse is stabled at all then make sure he has access to some hay for the duration of time that he is stabled.

There's so much information out there on feeding, and it can be very intimidating. Stick to the basics and dont over complicate things.

good luck!

WildHeartsCantBeBroken

01-04-2009 11:37 AM

Thanks Mrs. B. We have him out in a pasture all day long with a big round bale of hay so he can eat til his hearts desire. Then when we bring him in at night he has hay as well.